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Friday, October 24, 1975
心 口
University Dally Kansan
Students in the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program spend at least one night a week star gazing. Staff Photos by DAVID CRENSHAN
Engineering class converts car
The dream of conservationists and the nightmare of large oil companies is being designed by students in Electrical Engineering
Instead of solving textbook problems, the class is converting a 1965 MG automobile from gas to electric power.
"The course is to help the students engineering design and practice," says Dale Rummer, associate professor of electrical engineering.
Kein Fullerton, Overland Park senior, said that this class was different than any other he had taken.
"We try to give the students some idea what engineering practice is going to be like when they graduate." he said. "The emphasis is on practical experience."
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"Here you have the whole class working on one project as opposed to a lot of individual projects," he said.
Greg Ormiston, Kismet senior, described the class as interesting and useful.
"It gives us more of a taste of what we will be doing when we graduate, other than just doing problems," he said.
Dave Corbin, Overland Park junior said that the team work aspect was the most important part of the class.
"All design now is done by teams, that way you get more opinions and lots of ideas," he said.
"The class is stimulating, for the first time we are in a situation where we have a given idea and were told what to do and actually get to do it." Corbin said.
He said that he expected the car would be in some working order by the end of the semester. Modifications and refinements would continue to be made, perhaps over the next two or three semesters, Summer said.
Fullerton expressed the interest in the project shown by the class on Friday and was on the project next semester, but I would like to keep an eye on it.
If you want to learn how to defeat your opponent in a karate match or win a weekend sailboat regatta, a course in cybermetics may be your best bet.
Cybernetics practical, popular at KU
Cybernetics, which may be studied at the University after completion of an introductory course in computer science, develop an environment of an intricate computer model.
the course has been team-taught for the past four years by Robert Numley, professor of geography, and Robert Haralick, professor of electrical engineering.
Karate and sailing are just two of the projects being studied this fall. Other students are studying football plays and still others are deliving into transactional analysis determining what responses the type of people would make in given situations.
Haralick defines the course as a study of the rules that govern the behavior of things. Haralick is also one of the most popular
students in the class would like them to be,
he said.
There are no tests and no homework. But Haralick said his students were busy, and would be especially so as the semester neared an end.
"We don't expect the regurgitation of facts," he said. "Our learning mode is a little different. It has great value in the sense of discovery."
In that class, students who have never worked with computers before are using them to study such things as the economical and political relationships between cities, and the relationships between weather fronts and atmospheric pressure zones.
Nunley also has applied that same concept of student discovery to his introductory course.
Nunley said that he aimed for student involvement in his classes, and traditionally had encouraged students to do individual projects.
"pressure they're being turned on," he
said, but that hasn't been the case all
armesets.
Students turn to the stars
On clear nights, students in the program complement their study of poetry with a variety of art forms.
When it comes to curriculum in the humanities, Humanities Program, the skyl is the limit.
The Pearson program, a four-semester, freshman-sophomore sequence of courses, is an integrated study of all the humanities, with particular emphasis on poetry, philosophy and history. Dennis Quinn, Ph.D., president of the conjective of the Pearson program was to offer students a total picture of the development of Western Civilization.
So the question is: What do the stars have to do with Western Civilization?
Quinn said that all philosophy originated by looking at the stars. The stars caused wonderment, he said, and wonder was the beginning of the desire to know.
The Pearson program follows the principles of education used by the ancient Greeks, and is widely used in higher education.
called muses, comprised an ancient student's education, he said, and the muse of astronomy was one of the early stages of a student's education. A study of the stars then led to higher, more advanced studies, he said.
Stargazing in the program isn't regularly scheduled. Whenever the students want to expand on their sessions of poetry reading, Quinn said, they turn to the stars.
Observing the night sky in this manner differs from modern astronomy, according to Quinn. Modern astronomy takes a purely scientific approach to studying the stars, he said, but the Pearson program makes a poetic study of the constellations.
Tarnower said that the student recited poetry before the stargazing sessions, but he didn't know how to do it.
According to Jean Tarnower, a student assistant in poetry in the program, the stars of her work were as follows.
"They love it," she said. "It's fun to see figures in the stars."
the constellations. But she said that reciting
poetry and learning experiences,
would be a better experience.
A session is usually devoted to one constellation, she said, because the stories are quite long. But sometimes one story will include the stories of other constellations, she said, so the students learn more than just the one.
Quinn said that students could simply read about the stargazing of the ancient Greeks, but to actually view the constellations first-hand meant much more to
At a given stargazing tarnower, Tarnower said, the students meet in a country field outside of Lawrence. Either Tarnower or Baxter Xueh, another student assistant, tell the story behind a constellation and then help the students to sight the star pattern.
She said the students seemed to enjoy sitting and watching the skies.
"When they see a constellation they recognize, it's exciting." she said. "It's very exciting to be in that space."
Students in Electrical Engineering 490 have begun work on conversion of this car from gas to electric power.
Legion of profs teach of Rome
That may seem like a lot of topics for one course to cover, but when you're talking about Rome, you're talking about a lot of history.
The course, "Biography of a City—Rome," is coordinated by James E. Seaver, professor of history and director of the Western Civilization program. It is a joint
During this semester, one University history course will host 10 professors from such fields as law, architecture, music, art, literature and, of course, history.
It's chins up for women in this class
"Women are the weaker sex," says a notion as old as the history of men—or women.
But a different attitude is developing in the University's department of health, physical education and recreation: A woman's place is in the weight room.
Mike Chapman, a teaching assistant in the department, says he tried to have his students do as much as they could, no matter who they were.
Chapman teaches four physical fitness classes that require weight training. Although the classes are listed as men's sections in the class timetable and the handbook, nine women run, beave and grimace through his programs every week.
The women in Chapman's classes are asked to do whatever they can of the men's class. They don't need them, and once they can't do, for instance, Chapman said, most women can't chin-ups. He said instead of doing five chin-ups, the women would practice the "lat" machine and practice with the "lat" machine.
The "list" machine is a bar attached to an amount of weight the user can vary from 10 to 200 pounds. When the user pulls the bar down to his chest, the same muscles are used as if he were pulling himself up on a chinning bar.
All the specialists on Rome who were at the University were gathered, Saver said.
Alternatives for women are provided for seven steps of the 11-step conditioning program. However, women frequently find it difficult to follow an easier one in provided, Chapman said.
"I deals with the life of the city, all the people who lived there, all the famous things that were done and on so," Seaver says. The course, which meets each Thursday night,
reason women shouldn't try as hard as some of the men do.
Chapman said that this semester was the first in which he had taught women. He said learning to expect as much work from women as from men had been difficult.
Lori Aldridge, Salina junior, is in a class of 16 men and three women. She said being
effect of the humanities program and the departments of history and art history.
"I don't want them to think I'm in there going off," she said. "I want them to think."
"I'm impressed with the efforts the women put out" he said. "It's a learning experience."
Chapman said men generally reacted favorably to the presence of women in the workplace.
Women's performances differ from men's in more exercises for the upper body than in
exercises for other parts of the body,
Chapman said. Women have more trouble
doing push-ups and chin-ups, he said, and
also need to lift weights in the bench
press and military press.
"The guys are impressed that the gals are there," he said.
In the beginning, each instructor tried to lecture for an entire class session, Seaver said, but that proved to be too difficult for the instructors. Now there are two instructors each night, he said, and each teaches a different topic.
Charles H. Kahn, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design, said a favorable aspect of the course was that it included a case study to look at Rome with varied viewpoints.
"The instructors have been wonderfully cooperative and kind in helping out," Seaver said. "Since it's a team effort, none of us will be making the amount of time with the course."
Kahn, who lectures on architecturally
"One of the ideas is that if you get people interested enough in the culture and history of a London or Paris or Rome, they may want to so do."
Most of the course involves lecture presentations complemented with slides, movies and records, he said. There is also a period after each topic presentation for the students to discuss the material or ask questions.
“It’s really a lot of fun, both for the people who are giving the course and for the students,” Seaver said. “It’s worked out remarkably well.
related topics, said student reaction to the course had been good.
Seaver said that near the end of the semester, a panel of four or five instructors would discuss the concept of Rome for the class. The role of the instructor is almost as important as the city itself."
Seaver said the course had been more successful each year. Fifty students are enrolled this year, compared with 30 students the first year the course was of
What do the students think of the course?
"I think it 'terrific," said Karen Zim-
Staff Photo by GEORGE MILLENER
A joke from a fellow weight lifter brings a smile to Halle Utter, Augusta junior, during a workout at the weight training room in Robinson Gym.
"It's never dull because we're getting so many aspects of the city," Zimmerman said.
merer, Lawrence special student. "I really like it.
watching slides of different things such as sculpture, architecture and art, she said.
"I can make you synthetic orange juice," he said. "If you don't want that I can make it prume juice or even Vodka, if you please."
Bricker then he makes lead resound like metal used or by freezing the lead in air (dilutes).
"History can really be uninteresting." Zimmerer said. "This way, with history and law and art and everything combined, it's much better."
Everyone has heard of the class clown, and the chemistry department at the University of Kansas has a professor who likes to play the role.
Chem prof mixes tricks with lecture
On the last day of class, however, Bricker dresses an atlantic stairman or Sunburst skirt.
"I try to review rather rapidly the whole year's chemistry course with some rather quicker books," she said.
One of the more popular tricks is when he makes a home insulation material that looks "like porridge growing out of a kettle." Bricker said.
"Of course I have a lot of fun doing this, it's not very serious," he said.
In addition to the classroom show, Bricker also "perform" for elementary schoolers at the Edna A. Hill Child Development Laboratories in Haworth
During fall semester finals last year, students were treated to a brief interruption by Santa Claus, complete with candy canes and Christmas music.
"Three hours is a long time for students to sit there and take an exam," said Bricker. "We bring Santa Claus out to liven things up a bit."
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